- Source
- Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, Vol 1-3. Gummere, Richard Mott, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1917-1925.
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:latinLit:phi1017.phi015.humanitext-lat2:8.1-8.10
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-03
Seneca explains that his retirement is not a neglect of public duty, but a means to write down healthy guidelines for the benefit of posterity. He urges Lucilius to submit to philosophy for true freedom, avoiding the snares of fortune, and supports this with verses from Publilius Syrus and Lucilius himself.
"Tu me," inquis, "vitare turbam iubes, secedere et conscientia esse contentum? Ubi illa praecepta vestra, quae imperant in actu mori? "Quod ego tibi videor interim suadere,1 in hoc me recondidi et fores clusi, ut prodesse pluribus possem. Nullus mihi per otium dies exit. Partem noctium studiis vindico. Non vaco somno sed succumbo, et oculos vigilia fatigatos cadentesque in opere detineo.
”Do you order me,” you say, “to avoid the crowd, to withdraw, and to be content with my own conscience? Where are those precepts of yours, which command us to die in action?” Contrary to what I seem to you to be advising, as if I were urging you to retire, I have hidden myself in this place and closed my doors, so that I might be able to be of benefit to more people. No day passes by for me in idleness. I claim a part of the nights for studies. I do not find leisure for sleep but succumb to it, and I keep my eyes, weary from watching and falling, at work.
Secessi non tantum ab hominibus, sed a rebus, et inprimis a meis rebus; posterorum negotium ago; illis aliqua, quae possint prodesse, conscribo. Salutares admonitiones, velut medicamentorum utilium compositiones, litteris mando, esse illas efficaces in meis ulceribus expertus, quae etiam si persanata non sunt, serpere desierunt.
I have withdrawn not only from men, but from affairs, and especially from my own affairs; I am doing the business of posterity; I am writing down for them some things which may be of benefit. I commit salutary admonitions, like the compositions of useful medicines, to writing, having experienced that they are effective on my own ulcers, which, even if they are not thoroughly healed, have ceased to spread.
Rectum iter, quod sero cognovi et lassus errando, aliis monstro. Clamo: "Vitate, quaecumque vulgo placent, quae casus adtribuit. Ad omne fortuitum bonum suspiciosi pavidique subsistite; et fera et piscis spe aliqua oblectante decipitur. Munera ista fortunae putatis? Insidiae sunt. Quisquis vestrum tutam agere vitam volet, quantum plurimum potest, ista viscata beneficia devitet, in quibus hoc quoque miserrimi fallimur; habere nos putamus, haeremus.
The right path, which I recognized late and weary from wandering, I am pointing out to others. I cry out: “Avoid whatever pleases the crowd, whatever chance has bestowed. Stop, suspicious and fearful, at every fortuitous good; both wild beast and fish are deceived by some enticing hope. Do you think those are gifts of fortune? They are snares. Whosoever of you wishes to lead a safe life, let him avoid, as much as he possibly can, those bird-limed benefits, in which we, most miserable, are also deceived in this: we think that we possess them, but we are caught.
In praecipitia cursus iste deducit. Huius eminentis vitae exitus cadere est. Deinde ne resistere quidem licet, eum coepit transversos agere felicitas,2 aut saltim rectis aut semel ruere; non evertit fortuna, sed cernulat et allidit.
That course leads to precipices. The exit of this eminent life is to fall. Furthermore, it is not even permitted to resist, when fortune begins to drive a man headlong, or at least to ruin him straight down or all at once; fortune does not merely overturn, but throws headlong and dashes to pieces.
Hanc ergo sanam ac salubrem formam vitae tenete, ut corpori tantum indulgeatis, quantum bonae valitudini satis est. Durius tractandum est, ne animo male pareat.3 Cibus famem sedet, potio sitim extinguat, vestis arceat frigus, domus munimentum sit adversus infesta corporis. Hanc utrum caespes erexerit an varius lapis gentis alienae, nihil interest; scitote tam bene hominem culmo quam auro tegi. Contemnite omnia, quae supervacuus labor velut ornamentum ac decus ponit. Cogitate nihil praeter animum esse mirabile, cui magno nihil magnum est."
Therefore, hold fast to this sound and wholesome form of life, so that you indulge the body only as much as is sufficient for good health. It must be treated more harshly, lest it disobediently obey the mind. Let food appease hunger, let drink extinguish thirst, let clothing ward off cold, let a house be a defense against things hostile to the body. Whether sod has raised this house or the variegated stone of a foreign nation, it makes no difference; know that a man is covered just as well by thatch as by gold. Despise all things which superfluous labor sets up as ornament and honor. Reflect that nothing except the mind is wonderful, to which, being great, nothing is great.”
Si haec mecum, si haec cum posteris loquor, non videor tibi plus prodesse, quam cum ad vadimonium advocatus descenderem, aut tabulis testamenti anulum inprimerem, aut in senatu candidato vocem et manum commodarem? Mihi crede, qui nihil agere videntur, maiora agunt; humana divinaque simul tractant.
If I speak these things with myself, if I speak these things with posterity, do I not seem to you to be of more benefit than when I went down as an advocate to a bail-bond, or pressed my ring upon the tablets of a will, or lent my voice and hand to a candidate in the senate? Believe me, those who seem to do nothing are doing greater things; they treat human and divine affairs at the same time.
Sed iam finis faciendus est et aliquid, ut institui, pro hac epistula dependendum. Id non de meo fiet; adhuc Epicurum complicamus, cuius hanc vocem hodierno die legi: "Philosophiae servias oportet, ut tibi contingat vera libertas." Non differtur in diem, qui se illi subiecit et tradidit; statim circumagitur.4 Hoc enim ipsum philosophiae servire libertas est.
But now an end must be made and something must be paid, as I have resolved, for this letter. This will not be done from my own; we are still rolling up Epicurus, whose saying I read today: “You must serve philosophy so that true freedom may fall to your lot.” He who has subjected and delivered himself to her is not put off from day to day; he is immediately spun around. For this very serving of philosophy is freedom.
Potest fieri, ut me interroges, quare ab Epicuro tam multa bene dicta referam potius quam nostrorum. Quid est tamen, quare tu istas Epicuri voces putes esse, non publicas? Quam multi poetae dicunt, quae philosophis aut dicta sunt5 aut dicenda! Non adtingam tragicos nec togatas nostras. Habent enim hae quoque aliquid severitatis et sunt inter comoedias ac tragoedias mediae. Quantum disertissimorum versuum inter mimos iacet! Quam multa Publilii non excalceatis, sed coturnatis dicenda sunt!
It can happen that you ask me why I relate so many well-said things from Epicurus rather than from our own writers. What is there, however, why you should think those sayings belong to Epicurus and are not public property? How many poets say what either has been said or ought to be said by philosophers! I will not touch upon the tragedians, nor our own plays in Roman dress. For these also have something of severity and are midway between comedies and tragedies. How many of the most eloquent verses lie among the mimes! How many things of Publilius ought to be said not by barefooted actors, but by buskined ones!
Unum versum eius, qui ad philosophiam pertinet et ad hanc partem, quae modo fuit in manibus, referam, quo negat fortuita in nostro habenda: "Alienum est omne, quicquid optando evenit."
I will relate one verse of his, which pertains to philosophy and to this very part which was just now in our hands, in which he denies that fortuitous things are to be held as our own: “Everything is foreign, whatever comes about by wishing.”
Hunc sensum a te dici non paulo melius et adstrictis memini: "Non est tuum, fortuna quod fecit tuum." Illud etiamnunc melius dictum a te non praeteribo: "Dari bonum quod potuit, auferri potest." Hoc non inputo in solutum; dedi de tuo tibi.
I remember that this sense was expressed by you not a little better and more concisely: “What fortune has made yours is not yours.” I will not pass over that even better said thing by you: “The good that could be given, can be taken away.” I do not count this toward the payment; I have given you of your own to you.
- 8.1Quod ego tibi videor interim suadere
The introductory Quod is a relative pronoun with an implied antecedent (or relative connection) referring to the situation of Seneca seeming to advise retirement. It is interpreted as "As to what I seem to you to be advising," setting up a contrast with the following clause "in hoc me recondidi..." (I have hidden myself for the sake of helping more people).
- 8.4eum coepit transversos agere felicitas
In some manuscripts, eum is read as cum ("when"). If eum is retained, it functions as the direct object of agere (accusative masculine singular of the pronoun is, referring back to the "cursus" or generally to "a man"), meaning "when fortune begins to drive him astray."
- 8.5ne animo male pareat
The subject of pareat is corpus (the body), supplied from the preceding corpori. animo is the dative of object with verbs of obeying. male parere means "to obey badly" (i.e., to be disobedient or rebellious). Thus, the body must be treated harshly so that it does not rebelliously fail to obey the mind.
- 8.7statim circumagitur
circumagitur ("is spun around") refers to the legal ritual of manumission of slaves in Roman law (manumissio per vindictam), in which the master spun the slave around to declare him free. Here it is used as a metaphor for the immediate liberation of someone who submits to philosophy.
- 8.8non excalceatis, sed coturnatis dicenda sunt
excalceatis (the barefoot ones) refers to actors of mimes (low comedies performed barefoot or with thin-soled shoes), while coturnatis (those wearing the cothurnus) refers to tragic actors who wore high-soled buskins. This contrasts the high quality of Publilius Syrus's maxims, which deserve to be spoken in grand tragedy rather than in low mime.